1. Reigeluth’s Elaboration Theory
Lindsey Porta
Instructional Design
Spring 2016

2. Origin
Charles Reigeluth, doctoral student of Merrill (Component Display Theory)
Created in late 1970’s at University of Indiana
Response to paradigm shift of teacher-centered to learner centered education
Best for medium to complex cognitive and psychomotor learning

3. Dr. Reigeluth YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_3iy-O_03M
Discussion of paradigm shift in education

4. Theory Principles
Overview: each layer of instruction elaborates on previously presented ideas
“Chunking”: configuring large amounts of information into smaller units, which are used as scaffolding in order to accommodate learning limitations
“Cognitive Zoom”: Initially present a “wide-angle” view of learning topic and “zoom-in”
Observe relationships between wide-angle subject shots and zoom details

5. Seven Strategy Components
Sequence- each zoom is a sequence, sequence of ideas= epitome
Organize
Summarization- internal, within sets
Synthesize-integrate, interrelate
Analogy- use of familiar idea to introduce new ideas
Cognitive-strategy activator- imbedded, detached
Learner-control- control of instructional elements (i.e. content, rate, components, & cognitive strategies)

6. Values of theory According to Reigeluth
Holistic, fosters meaning-making and motivation
Learners make decisions based on scope and sequence
Facilitates raping prototyping in instructional design process
Useful approach to scope and sequence into coherent design

7. References
Clark, D. (November 14, 2015) Reigeluth’s Elaboration Theory for Instructional Design. Retrieved from reigeluth.html
Culatta, R. (2015). Elaboration Theory. Retrieved February 11, 2016 from /instructionaldesign.org/ theories/elaboration-theory.html
Learning-theories.com (n.d.) Retrieved February 13, 2016 from